2011 Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Henri Bonneau made it clear to me this year that highly structured and/or overly ripe vintages of Chateauneuf-du-Pape aren't his personal preference "because the complexity and terroir are obscured."In fact, he personally prefers the relatively graceful 2006 Celestins to the far more masculine 2005 bottling, and has some (but not many) misgivings about the tannins of 2010, at least at this stage, believing that they will require plenty of barrel aging to show their best.He used some of his colorful female analogies to make his point about finesse over brawniness, opining that "Chateauneuf should be elegant, after all, not brutal."Bonneau told me that he thinks too many wines are being rushed into bottle these days, to the detriment of their character."Everything is being done with speed in mind now in winemaking, elevage and bottling.People want the quickest solution and lack patience, for almost everything, not just wine, but for all work, and so quality suffers."We tried a bottle of the 2005 Celestins at the end of our tasting and while it is still distinctly young and wound up, its depth of fruit is obvious, as are its tannins.Aeration brought up a sexy floral quality as well as a touch of candied licorice and peppery spices.Readers fortunate enough to get hold of this wine are strongly advised to let it gather dust in their cellar for at least another five years and ideally longer.